Hayley’s Blog

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Take Back the Afternoon:

Preserving the Landscape of Childhood In Spite of Computers

by David Sobel

Article Source Phi

I was reading Jana’s blog on Elgg which was intriguing as I wasn’t entirely convinced on the benefits of social networking for a classroom. But now I realise that it provides students with the chance to interact with their teacher and peers outside the classroom. After all who doesn’t find it quietly satisfying that we can just e-mail our lecturers to get help when ever we need it? In a sense I guess social networking sites such as Elgg act as a sort of online student portfolio in which they can display their work, discuss their school work and gain access to an immediate audience.

The Journal Article “Crossroads in Education: Issues for Web 2.0, Social Software, and Digital Tools” discuss how advancements in social software are challenging what it means to be educated, and how we choose to educate our students in a world where lifelong learning, creativity and personalization prevail. Although the article is all for social software, it does highlight the need for structure and subject knowledge from experienced teachers.  The journal brings up an interesting point that not many things in this world are truly original anymore  as people change content and adapt it to their liking to produce their own “original” piece of work. Therefore we need to teach our students how to reference their work correctly for legal purposes. All in all it is a great tool to be implemented into the classroom to assist those students who benefit from interactive, creative learning. Social software allows for cooperative information sharing, and is a great way to utilise collaborative classroom activities.

Image Source: http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/creative_play1.jpg

After creating a LAMS task for my university course I was intrigued to find out more about these new learning designs so went straight to the source for some information. On the LAMS website it discusses what a learning design is, that it is simply is an interactive online learning sequence. Furthermore the article goes on to say that learning designs do not exclude single learner e-learning, it just has a higher focus on collaborative learning as students learn from working with their peers. Although learning designs are a great way to promote interactive learning, and expand upon a topic, teachers need to be careful that they do not create these tasks to be purely based on covering the technology section of the syllabus. When used correctly learning designs such as LAMS allow for great collaborative or individual learning, that can either introduce a topic, build upon previous knowledge, or conclude they study of a topic, the sky is the limit with these online tasks! For the LAMS my partner and I created, we focused on the water cycle and realised that rather than simply cutting and pasting pictures we could get students to watch videos, play games, make stories all to do with the water cycle it was an excellent tool that put a creative twist on classroom learning. Best of all, even though it was an online tasks students could only access information we have provided them with, all in all this is an excellent way to build a lesson for your students.

Image Source: http://www.genevacommunitycenter.org/images/computer2.jpg

The Australian Government is implementing a “digital education revolution” to improve Australia’s education and training standards.  The aim of the program is to better educate students in preparation for further education and work in a digital world. After all isn’t that what teacher’s aim to do? To teach our students valuable skills to help them succeed in life.

The Australian Government is providing new funding of $1.2 billion over five years to provide schools with new or upgraded information and communication technology, online curriculum tools and resources plus so  much more. I think that this strategy will improve the use of technology in classrooms as teacher’s won’t see it as a hassle or a waste of money as they will be provided with it and therefore will be more obliged to use it in their teaching. One major reason for not implementing technology into the classroom is not a fear of failure but insufficient funds to buy software that will enhance learning. By the Government providing new technology to classrooms teacher’s and students will have access to the latest technologies at the tip of their fingers.

After watching this short youtube clip “Educ 511 Technology in Education” I have learnt some true benefits of technology as well as viewing a new way of expressing yourselves, or making a point on a topic that brings a new twist to simply producing a written or oral piece of work. The video talks about how much paper we can waste in schools that results in damaging our precious environment, it makes a point that rather than filling our land with waste we could do more activities online that will help students learn and will save paper.

Moreover the clip makes a vital point about how a student does research for school, ever since I had a computer I looked online or on computer encyclopedias to get information, I never looked over textbooks as they were such a hassle to get my hands on. I think the most affective quote in this clip was “textbooks are outdated as soon as they are printed,” this made me think long and hard about what I want for my students, after all I want them to have access to the most relevant information as possible don’t I? Therefore why would I buy them a textbook with which I could use the money to buy other resources when as soon as I buy them the information will be out of date. At least with computers programs can be upgraded, and information on the internet is constantly upgraded by the creators. Not only did this provide valuable insight into how important and beneficial computers are, but it showed a short digital story that was very effective in getting it’s point across, that I could implement into my classroom rather than simply getting students to do a written report.